Sikh groups on Monday continued their protests here against the acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the anti-Sikh riots case.
Hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside the Parliament for over an hour. They gathered near Vijay Chowk and demanded that the CBI should appeal against the lower court’s verdict. The gathering here prevented MPs from accessing the Vijay Chowk gate to the Parliament House complex.
The protests were peaceful. Later,the police detained a few protestors and dispersed the crowd. As a precautionary measure, barricades were put up in the area which leads to Rashtrapathi Bhavan and the Prime Minister’s Office.
Delhi state Gurudwara affairs minister Arvinder Singh alleged that the Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) and the BJP were politicising the issue and inciting people to gain political mileage.
Over the past week, Sikhs have held protests outside 10 Janpath, the residence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi in West Delhi area which has a majority Sikh population.
On April 30, a Delhi court acquitted Kumar of charges that he was part of a group of people who were responsible for the killing of five Sikhs in Raj Nagar locality part of the Delhi Cantonment area. The five others who were convicted by the court are former Congress MLA Mahender Yadav, former Congress councillor Balwan Khokkar, his brother Kishan Khokkar and two others. The anti-Sikh riots in which an estimated 3000 sikhs were murdered, happened in 1984.